What licence should a Michigan access-control installer have?

A Security Alarm Contractor Agency licence from Michigan LARA, held by the company, plus a branch licence for each branch office. Michigan does not license individual alarm contractors. If the job involves electrical or fire-alarm wiring, ask whether Bureau of Construction Codes licensing applies as well.

We have an office in Troy and an engineering site in Dearborn. Can one person manage both?

Yes. GateStride manages every site from one account, so you can issue and revoke phone credentials for both locations remotely and see a separate who-is-inside list for each, without driving between them or keeping a stock of spare badges at each site.

Does the Detroit fire inspection cover GateStride?

No. Fire Marshal inspections look at egress and your building’s life-safety systems, and GateStride does not change either: doors keep releasing the way they do today. GateStride adds a record of who has left, which helps your own head count during an alarm.

Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Detroit?

No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.

Does GateStride have an office in Detroit?

No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve Metro Detroit without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.

Will it lower what we pay each month?

It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.

Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?

Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

Locations / Detroit, MI

Office access control in Detroit — get more from the card readers already on your doors.

Metro Detroit’s offices are spread out: towers around Campus Martius and along Woodward downtown, renovated buildings in Midtown, New Center and Corktown, and a long belt of suburban office space in Southfield, Troy, Auburn Hills, Farmington Hills, Novi and Dearborn. Most already have card access. GateStride builds on it, letting staff unlock with their phones, cutting the badge and per-user costs that grow with headcount, and showing who has left a building without anyone swiping out.

Request a Detroit demo Work out your savings

Downtown Detroit skyline on the riverfront

The shape of the Detroit office market

Downtown Detroit has the region’s tallest office buildings, and over the past decade many older towers and loft buildings downtown, in Midtown and in Corktown have been renovated and re-leased to smaller tenants. But much of the metro’s office space sits outside the city. Southfield’s office towers, the Big Beaver Road corridor in Troy, Auburn Hills and the I-696 and I-275 corridors through Farmington Hills and Novi house engineering firms, suppliers, insurers, law and accounting practices and healthcare administration.

That split shapes how access works. In a downtown multi-tenant tower, the landlord controls the lobby and the tenant controls its suite. In the suburbs, a mid-size company is more likely to occupy a whole low-rise building or a wing of a campus and to own every reader on it, often alongside a plant, lab or warehouse elsewhere in the region. GateStride works at whichever level the company itself controls, and leaves the landlord’s lobby system alone.

Offices that sit next to plants. Automotive and mobility companies are a defining industry here, and an engineering office often has a test lab, plant or supplier site somewhere else in the metro. GateStride puts every site’s doors and who-is-inside list in one account.
Freeway distances. Getting from Troy to Dearborn or from Novi to downtown is a drive, so an office manager cannot be at every door. Phone credentials are issued and revoked remotely, with no badge to print or post.
Michigan winters. Snow, ice and early dark make the walk from the parking lot the worst part of the day. Walk-up phone unlock lets people in without taking gloves off to find a card.

Where Detroit offices overpay for access control

In Metro Detroit the expensive part of access control is rarely the hardware on the wall. It is the yearly drip of user licences, replacement fobs and admin time, multiplied by however many sites the company runs.

Per-person fees

Cardholder, user or mobile-credential charges that rise with every hire, even though no door changed.

Badges that walk out

Lost, broken and never-returned cards and fobs, each one a purchase and a gap until it is disabled.

Office-manager hours

Issuing badges on day one, chasing them on the last day, and letting people in who forgot theirs.

The replacement quote

New readers, controllers, wiring and subscriptions proposed for a system that still works.

GateStride connects to the system you already own as a single integration user and manages your people itself, so staff who move to phone access stop adding per-person credential costs on the underlying system, and nobody needs a badge printed. Put your own numbers into the savings calculator to see what that is worth for your office, and check your vendor’s licence terms with your integrator.

Knowing who is still inside, in Detroit

In the City of Detroit, life safety is not something businesses think about only once. Business licensing is tied to a Fire Marshal life-safety inspection and fire permit, so egress gets looked at on licensed commercial premises. Knowing who is still in the building when the alarm goes off is the part an inspection cannot do for you: someone has to count heads at the assembly point.

Winter storms raise the same question in a quieter way. When a company closes early ahead of snow and ice, or a site loses heat or power, managers want to confirm that everyone has gone home. With exits recorded from people’s phones, that check takes a glance rather than a walk through the building.

Most card systems log people coming in, not going out, because exits release freely. GateStride records who left from the phone they carry, without a swipe, and turns a fire drill into a one-tap roll call. How exit tracking works.

Exit tracking supports accountability. It is not a substitute for free egress, your evacuation plan or your certified fire and life-safety systems.

Rules that apply to Detroit offices

Before anyone touches a door, three things are worth knowing. This is general information, not legal or life-safety advice; confirm specifics with the agencies below and your own counsel.

Checking your installer is licensed in Michigan

Michigan’s Private Security Business and Security Alarm Act (1968 PA 330, MCL 338.1051 and following) requires a Security Alarm Contractor Agency licence for companies that install, maintain, monitor or service security alarm systems. The licence is held by the business; Michigan does not issue individual alarm contractor licences, and each branch office needs a branch licence. The licence is issued by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), where you can look it up. Electrical or fire-alarm wiring can also fall under the Bureau of Construction Codes, so ask what licences cover the specific work.

Source: Michigan LARA: Security Alarm Contractor licensing

Who enforces door and egress rules in Detroit

Inside the City of Detroit, the Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED) administers and enforces the Michigan state construction codes. The Detroit Fire Department’s Fire Marshal Division reviews the life-safety side of commercial construction and carries out life-safety inspections under the Detroit Fire Prevention and Protection Code (City Code Chapter 18). Statewide, the 2021 Michigan Building Code, based on the 2021 International Building Code with amendments, took effect in April 2025. Suburban cities have their own building departments. Check with the relevant one before changing how a door releases; GateStride does not change door release.

Source: City of Detroit BSEED

Privacy and biometric law in Michigan

Michigan has no state biometric privacy statute and no comprehensive consumer privacy law. The Identity Theft Protection Act (MCL 445.61 and following) does impose duties to notify people after certain data breaches. A comprehensive privacy bill was introduced in 2025 but, according to our source, had not been enacted; check its current status with counsel before relying on that. GateStride’s phone-based unlock does not capture biometric identifiers either way.

Source: RecordingLaw: Michigan biometric privacy

GateStride’s default uses device credentials and non-biometric person detection, so no biometric data is collected. Facial recognition is optional, off by default, and offered only where it is legally compliant and you choose to enable it.

Works with the systems Detroit integrators install

You keep your vendor and your integrator. GateStride overlays Kantech EntraPass, Honeywell, LenelS2 OnGuard, Software House C•CURE, HID and Brivo by reading their events and calling their own unlock. See the integrations, the architecture, or how an upgrade compares with ripping everything out for a cloud platform. Integrators around Detroit commonly support platforms such as LenelS2, Genetec, Honeywell, Brivo, HID, AMAG and PDK; if one of these runs your doors, GateStride layers on top.

For Detroit security integrators

If you maintain access control for offices, suppliers and engineering sites across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, GateStride is a way to grow revenue from customers you already serve. It sits on the panels you installed, so there is no rip-out, no new wiring and no re-certification. You add phone unlock and exit tracking, earn resale margin for every site, and keep the account. Our partner directory lists integrators by city and by system.

Detroit’s security community meets through Burglar and Fire Alarm Association of Michigan (BFAAM) · ASIS International chapters.

See the partner program

Questions from Detroit offices

What licence should a Michigan access-control installer have?: A Security Alarm Contractor Agency licence from Michigan LARA, held by the company, plus a branch licence for each branch office. Michigan does not license individual alarm contractors. If the job involves electrical or fire-alarm wiring, ask whether Bureau of Construction Codes licensing applies as well.
We have an office in Troy and an engineering site in Dearborn. Can one person manage both?: Yes. GateStride manages every site from one account, so you can issue and revoke phone credentials for both locations remotely and see a separate who-is-inside list for each, without driving between them or keeping a stock of spare badges at each site.
Does the Detroit fire inspection cover GateStride?: No. Fire Marshal inspections look at egress and your building’s life-safety systems, and GateStride does not change either: doors keep releasing the way they do today. GateStride adds a record of who has left, which helps your own head count during an alarm.
Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Detroit?: No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.
Does GateStride have an office in Detroit?: No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve Metro Detroit without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.
Will it lower what we pay each month?: It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.
Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?: Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

See it on your Detroit doors

A short demo on the access control you already have — no rip-and-replace.

Request a demo Work out your savings

Sources

Last reviewed October 2026. Trademarks belong to their respective owners; GateStride is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by any access-control manufacturer.